Friday, November 18, 2005

Did U.S. Forces Seize Fallujah Hospital to Conceal Evidence of White Phosphorus Attacks?

By MARC MCDONALD

The recent revelation that U.S. forces used white phosphorus weapons during its assault on Fallujah raises questions about the seizing of Fallujah's general hospital early in the campaign.

U.S. military officials have recently admitted using white phosphorus weapons in Fallujah after long denying it. The devastating chemical weapons melt human flesh and can burn through skin, right down to the bone.

When the U.S. military forces bombarded Fallujah in November 2004, their first act was to seize the city's main hospital and arrest the doctors. U.S. officials claimed at the time that the hospital was selected as an early target because it was a "center of propaganda."

Author Noam Chomsky has pointed out that the hospital seizure was a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions. The treaties state that "medical units and transports shall be respected and protected at all times and shall not be the object of attack."

Chomsky notes that after the U.S. military's seizure of Fallujah's general hospital, "patients were kicked out of their beds and doctors and patients were forced to lie on the floor, handcuffed."

And it raises an interesting question: did the U.S. military seize the hospital to suppress news about the use of its white phosphorus attacks in Fallujah? After all, the U.S. official's stated rationale for seizing the hospital was to control the flow of information. And what better way to conceal reports of civilian casualties bearing telltale white phosphorus burns than to seize Fallujah's hospital?

7 comments:

All these liberal web sites are always concocting these ridiculous conspiracy theories in an effort to hurt President Bush. And yet our President remains more popular than ever and he has the support of the troops in Iraq as well as the majority of the American people.

Lemme see if I understand this correctly. The U.S. invaded Iraq because it said Saddam had WMDs that threatened America. But as it turns out, Saddam was telling the truth when he said he had no WMDs. Turns out that Bush was the liar. Now, the U.S. has used WMDs on Iraq in its assault on Fallujah. White phosphorus liquifies human flesh; it's a pretty horrible way to die---particularly when you breath it and it melts your lungs. Kudoes to the Italian journalists who revealed this story to the world (while the U.S. press, as usual, had its head up its ass).

Well, if you've read any articles lately, two US soldiers where exposed to an artillery shell which contained Sarin gas from an IED. Now I don't know about you, but Saddam claimed he had destroeyed these shells, but yet insurgents raided his arsenal, and found them.

Of course Saddam had WMD's, they were supplied by the US and French governments and Saddam used them against his own people. We just don't get reports of WMD's that can be traced back to the wrong people.

Iraq had no WMDs, retard. When will you wingnuts accept this reality? Your heroes Bush and Rumsfield have already accepted the reality. (Chimpy even did a "comedy" sketch about the missing WMDs).Wingnuts, the fact is, YOUR illegal and immoral war was based on LIES.There were no fucking WMDs.Pull your head out of your ass and turn off Fox "News."

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Welcome to BeggarsCanBeChoosers.com, the progressive political blog of Marc McDonald. A Texas journalist, McDonald worked for 15 years for several newspapers, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, before he quit his day job and set up shop in cyberspace in 1995. McDonald's articles have appeared in a number of popular progressive Web sites, including Crooks and Liars, The Reaction, Buzzflash.com, Salon.com, OpEdNews.com, The Neil Rogers Show and The Raw Story. McDonald's Web articles have also been featured and reviewed by various national and international media, including CNN Headline News, the BBC, CBS, the Washington Post, USA Today and many more. On June 3, 2011, I was interviewed on the progressive radio program, "Voices at Work." Go here to hear my interview with host Ron Gonyea. I am always available for media interviews on progressive issues. Contact me here.